Why is a raven like a writing desk?

Monthly Archives: November 2009

As climate change sucks oxygen from the world’s oceans it could create huge dead zones that will last tens of thousands of years. Fish could vanish from huge stretches of the ocean for tens of thousands of years unless we drastically reduce our carbon emissions.

If the standard of meaningfulness is minimal – having goals, projects, interests, relationships that engage and energize one’s life – most of our lives on the whole meet it. But that is not saying much. […] Is it better to live Michelangelo’s life and not be particularly happy or to live an obscure, minimally meaningful life and be happier? If living a happy life was a greater good than living a robustly meaningful, significant, valuable life, then we should prefer the former. Yet we reasonably value a life replete with enduring accomplishment, high creativity, powerful social effects, and unparalleled excellence more than a minimally meaningful, happy life.

The third form of happiness, which is meaning, is again knowing what your highest strengths are and deploying those in the service of something you believe is larger than you are. There’s no shortcut to that. That’s what life is about. There will likely be a pharmacology of pleasure, and there may be a pharmacology of positive emotion generally, but it’s unlikely there’ll be an interesting pharmacology of flow. And it’s impossible that there’ll be a pharmacology of meaning.

Aside: To me the basic, lower level of happiness (that could potentially be medicated) is like not having a headache. It’s a normal aspect of being healthy. I’m not talking about joy or ecstasy, but just a mild, pleasant sense of well-being. Unfortunately, too often even that level of happiness is treated as something suspect, as something that must be earned by achievement. You don’t deserve not having a headache, it’s the normal human state, and similarly with being mildly, low-level happy. See also “Creativity is more likely to occur when people are positive and buoyant“.

Dan, according to this, fasting before and during a long flight can help fight jet lag.

I experienced evidence of this on a smoky, uncomfortable flight to Milano some years ago. I was in a bad mood for other reasons, and declined any food. But later I noticed that I felt unusually good. I conjectured at the time that the spontaneous fasting had helped, but never followed up, because in a normal mood, fasting sounds pretty unpleasant.

Maybe I’ll give it a try next time I travel.

Regarding the moral dilemma of long-distance travel in the days of melting ice and ocean acidification, see here.

Is there really no alternate economic system that would incorporate markets, competition, free trade and all the other things economists love, but which does not depend on growth? Or at least not on the growth of material consumption?

Above all, don’t allow yourself to be lulled into the New Year’s Resolution Syndrome, rationalizing away each wasted day by thinking, “I’m going to work on improving my efficiency starting the first of the year,” or, “I’m going to start making ten sales calls a day beginning next month,” or, “I’m going to start working on that project as soon as I get everything else under control.” The New Year’s Resolution Syndrome […] is the antithesis of living in the present, and leads only to a life of endless procrastination.

The time to start becoming efficient is today. The time to make a sales call is today. The time to start working on a project is today. And the time to start picking up the pieces and begin over again is today. Develop the habit of living in the present. The best day really is today, so get started now, no matter what your problems are and no matter how long you’ve already procrastinated.